learn japanese and go to japan

Right now I can understand more than I can speak. My accent is pretty good, to be honest, but I can never remember how I’m supposed to word things. There’s a subject placer and a verb doohicky and all this stuff that I’m still trying to figure out.

oh yea, I’m using the rosetta stone online thingamajigger to help me out, in addition to various books and stuff that belong to M. (who is much more advanced at speaking Japanese than I am- although I think I have a better accent. He’s just too stinkin’ Nordic. :oD Still, he’s had conversations with the Sushi guy and I’m still learning how to say “the young woman with black hair” and “the elephant is swimming under the table”)

I need to practice more. Right now I’m really good at saying “hikooki!” which means “airplane”.

Other words I can (kinda) say:

“zoo” – elephant (pronouced differently than our word for Zoo- it’s more like “Zoe”. Kinda.)

“tabaru” – tae-ba-ru/ table
“nanohito” – woman

Arg. I’ve got a ways to go. Back to practicing. ::sigh::

WEll… I’m off to a good start. I can tell people I’m drunk and ask for another beer. Except I don’t drink and I hate beer.